St. James kids compete in spelling bee

The St. James School District held the local finals of the National Spelling Bee on Tuesday morning at the high school’s Little Theater.

Seventh grader Callie Coleman won the contest for the third time. Callie correctly spelled the word ‘hurriedly’ to win first place. Callie put herself in a hole early on in the competition, when she did not correctly hear a word.

The St. James School District held the local finals of the National Spelling Bee on Tuesday morning at the high school’s Little Theater.

Seventh grader Callie Coleman won the contest for the third time. Callie correctly spelled the word ‘hurriedly’ to win first place. Callie put herself in a hole early on in the competition, when she did not correctly hear a word.

The word was disgust, but from what she spelled she apparently heard an entirely different word, as she correctly spelled discussed.

Brandon Johnson, also a seventh grader, was the runner up in the contest.

Two students in grades five through eight patriciated in the double elimination event. Each student was not eliminated from the competition until misspelling two words.

The contest lasted more than a half hour as misspellings eliminated students one at a time.

In addition to Callie and Brandon, students who participated in the spelling bee were Nelson Cuellar, Tommy Velasco, Troy Parulski, Danielle Chapin, Chantel Henderson and David Gonzalez.

Callie won a first place prize of 50 Chamber Bucks. Brandon got 20 Chamber Bucks and the other students each won ten Chamber Bucks.

As the local champion, Callie moves onto the next round of the contest, which is in Mankato on Feb. 12.